Mary Rollins first
met Joseph Smith in early 1831. She and her family were new converts
and Joseph Smith had just arrived in Kirtland from New York state.
Twelve-year-old Mary remembers, “when he saw me, he looked at me so
earnestly, I felt almost afraid [and I thought, ‘He can read my every thought,’
and I thought how blue his eyes were.] after a moment, or too he came and
put his hands on my head and gave me a great Blessing, (the first I ever
received)”. Joseph also prepared Mary for their eventually marriage:
“[He]
told me about his great vision concerning me. He said I was the first woman
God commanded him to take as a plural wife.” In the fall of that
year, Mary and her family left Kirtland for “Zion”, which was being
established in Missouri.

Three years later,
Mary and Joseph would be reunited when Joseph led the Zion’s Camp expedition
from Ohio to Missouri. Mary remembers, “In 1834 he was commanded
to take me for a Wife, I was a thousand miles from him, he got afraid”.
At the close of Zion’s Camp, Joseph returned to Kirtland. Mary stayed
in Missouri, living in Liberty and Far West. Perhaps thinking her
marriage to Joseph was off, she married Adam Lightner in 1835. By
1840 they had settled in Nauvoo, and were raising two children.

Early in 1842, Joseph
approached Mary about becoming his wife. According to Mary, Joseph
said, “The angel came to me three times between the year of ’34 and
’42 and said I was to obey that principle or he would slay me.”
Furthermore, Joseph told her, “I was his before I came here and he said
all the Devils in hell should never get me from him...” and “I know
that I shall be saved in the Kingdom of God. I have the oath of God upon
it and God cannot lie. All that he gives me I shall take with me for I
have that authority and that power conferred upon me.”

Initially, Mary did
not accept Joseph’s proposal. She wanted a witness from God.
Mary recalls, “If ever a poor mortal prayed I did”. By February
1842 Joseph had convinced her it was a correct principle and she, “went
forward and was sealed to him. Brigham Young performed the sealing...for
time, and all Eternity.” Mary said her husband Adam was “far
away” out of town at the time of her marriage to Joseph.

Mary continued to live
with her first husband, Adam. Of this arrangement, she later wrote,
“I
could tell you why I stayed with Mr. Lightner. Things the [current] leaders
of the Church does not know anything about. I did just as Joseph
told me to do...”

After Joseph Smith
was killed in 1844, Mary and her first husband Adam continued to live in
Nauvoo and the Midwest. In 1863 they moved to Utah. In her
elderly years, Mary wrote to an acquaintance, “...I Love to talk about
the Prophet and the Early days of the Church [I] will always remember
how Joseph looked...at that first sealing...he was tall and of a commanding
figure, full of Life...Yes; I could tell you many things that I cannot
write – I remember every word he...ever said to me of importance...”